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Contents Dislodged During Shipment

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....if they had only found an audience!

This lone major label album from Akronites Tin Huey has been in my CD wish list for so long that I figured there was no chance I'd ever own it. But finally, the long lost "Contents Dislodged During Shipment" has been dislodged from the cult vault. It's high time many others discover why I have kept my vinyl copy in pristine shape for almost 25 years. The Hueys threw an insane mix of pop, jazz, and Frank Zappa-esque avant-garde weirdness together so effortlessly that no less than Captain Beefheart was a fan.

While sometimes on the same roadmap as label mates DEVO, the Hueys' worldview was often more comic. "I Could Rule The World If I Could Only Get the Parts" blasts by on a wave of products that sound like they were lifted from a long night of shopping channel surfing. Laser razors and string balls somehow combine with a wild sax, perhaps as an answer to the previous song's "Revelations Of Dr Modesto." Like the mad scientist musicians they were, Tin Huey made it all make sense.

They were also paranoid in the same perverse way DEVO sometimes was, if Devo had roots in jazz, that is. The wobbly guitars that snake through the nightmarish "Puppet Wipes" help give the chorus ("Heads! Puppet heads! My Car is filled with...tons of...heads!") its freakish edge. In comparison, a straightforward reading of "I'm A Believer" and the righteous funk of "Slide" also gave hints that Tin Huey was perfectly capable of mainstreaming it.

Too bad they never got another shot. Granted, some of the Hueys went on to other, more successful projects (Chris Butler formed The Waitresses, and saxman Ralph Carney has been on plenty of records that you have heard over the years, including the B-52's, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits). Unfortunately, "I'm A Believer" didn't become the hit, DEVO went on to overshadow Tin Huey, and Warner's dropped the band barely a year after signing them. As Tin Huey themselves put it in the very last line on "Contents Dislodged During Shipment," "everybody knows that money talks...and talking [stinks]."

Buy this. Buy two. Put your money where the talk is.

Exactly what it was supposed to be-

"I could rule the world" beats the Waitresses version.Good!

In 1979, Akron, Ohio was somehow a "hip" place for a band to be based. Devo were at their creative and commercial peak, having been hyped by the likes of Bowie and Neil Young, and produced by Brian Eno. Major labels thought another appealingly off-beat "new wave" band from the factory town might go over, and so-- to make a long story short-- Tin Huey got a record deal with Warner Bros. That contract made this 1979 release possible. A pretty unlikely tale,considering the band's brand of zany, progressive art-rock combined with an up-tempo, new wave feel. Not exactly commercial stuff! Well, needless to say, the thing flopped in terms of sales. Thankfully,though, the story doesn't end there. This reissue, complete with biographical liner notes, is perfect for old fans who lost their scratched vinyl years back, or for those coming to the material for the first time.

The music is highly influenced by avant-garde rock artists like Robert Wyatt, Can, Faust, Zappa, and Capt. Beefheart. But there's another side to their sound which owes more to the high energy, aggressive proto-punk of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. These were some of the bands that Tin Huey members admired,according to the liner notes, and the band created a unique sound blending their influences. For all the complex song structures, jazzy horn arrangements, sax leads, odd time-signatures and the like; none of it sounds pretentious or self-indulgent. One reason is that this band, unlike a good many avant-rock outfit, is all about FUN, and their brand of humor prevents the somewhat progressive song-structures from coming off as anything other than sincere. The opener is a cover of Robert Wyatt's cover of Neil Diamond's I'm A Believer, which was a hit for The Monkees. Now there's an inside joke! But that must be the track the A&R people over at Warner heard, because it's the only thing that comes close to mainstream rock on the disc. The rest of the album is a bizarre and cartoon-like adventure through tunes with names like "The Revelations of Dr. Modesto" and "Puppet Wipes," songs that sound as weird as their titles. So if zany, high energy,comic book influenced avant-rock circa 1979 is your thing, you won't want to miss this reissue.